COUNTY TO PAY $85,000 TO TWO RITUAL TARGETS.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

The Los Angeles County Claims Board on Monday approved paying a total of $85,000 to two county employees who complained that co-workers hung a bloody cow's tongue from a tree outside the Lancaster welfare office as part of a Santeria death threat.

Julie Scheuer of Lancaster and Kathryn Sierra of Palmdale, who are eligibility workers for the Department of Public Social Services, claimed in a lawsuit they were victims of religious harassment when the painted cow's tongue was found hanging by a wire from a tree outside their office on July 28, 1997.

Officials recommended settling the case, saying that if the county lost a jury trial, it could cost taxpayers as much as $500,000.

``We believe that a jury may conclude that Julie Scheuer and Kathryn Sierra were each subjected to harassment, discrimination and retaliation because they made complaints about their supervisor giving preferential treatment to members of the Santeria religious group before the hanging of the cow's tongue,'' Deputy County Counsel Ruben Baeza Jr. wrote in a report to the Claims Board.

Santeria is a syncretic Afro-Caribbean religion that melds Catholic practices with non-Christian beliefs about spirits, hexes and blessings, and practices such as animal sacrifice.

The decision to pay the settlement is final. Because it is less than $100,000, it does not require approval of the Board of Supervisors.

Scheuer and Sierra, and the supervisor could not be reached for comment Monday. A confidentiality agreement clamped on the case prevents the lawyers from talking about the details.

Scraps of paper bearing the names of Scheuer, Sierra and 12 other workers were pinned to the yellow-painted tongue outside the office on East Avenue K.

Some of the notes contained maiden and middle names, information that could only be obtained from confidential personnel files.

Scheuer and Sierra claimed the act was a ritual of the Santeria religion and was intended as a death threat.

They claimed the tongue was hung from the tree by their supervisor and fellow employees because they were not members of the religion and had spoken out against the supervisor as a result of the ``perceived favoritism that was extended to members of this religion,'' Maeza wrote in his report to the panel.

A sheriff's investigation found the tongue represented a Santeria ritual but was not a death threat.

The investigation found that at least two department employees carried out the ritual in an attempt to prevent co-workers from gossiping or speaking negatively about the supervisor. But there was insufficient evidence to determine who carried out the acts, investigators said.

No charges were ever filed.

Brian Lew, spokesman for the Department of Public Social Services, said the department and the former supervisor at the Lancaster office had no comment on the case.